‘I love these conditions’ says Magnussen, after Haas lock out third row in Montreal

Haas are targeting their first points since Imola at the 2022 Canadian Grand Prix, after a fine qualifying performance from the North American team on (nearly) home soil saw Kevin Magnussen and Mick Schumacher take P5 and P6 on the grid in the wet.

Schumacher finished the first runs of Q3 in a strong P4, but would ultimately fall to sixth as Lewis Hamilton and team mate Magnussen improved in the final stages of the damp qualifying, the Dane taking fifth – Haas with two cars in the top six for the first time since the 2018 German Grand Prix.

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And with Magnussen having impressed in the cold, damp qualifying at Imola, the Dane conceded that the Haas VF22 appeared to enjoy frigid conditions, saying: “It was good run. I love these conditions, and this year our car seems to love it too.

“We had these similar conditions, or at least intermediate conditions, in Imola and we got P4 [in qualifying] and now this time we got P5, so it’s a lot of fun. We’ve just got to try and take advantage of that tomorrow. It certainly helped our chances of scoring points I think, so yeah, it’s a good day.

“In conditions like this it’s a real team effort,” added the F1 returnee. “Communication is so important, and I got everything I needed from the team today, both in terms of the balance of the car – of course the car has something extra in these conditions – and also in terms of just communicating, getting me out at the right times, getting me in front of the queue, and doing the right thing all the way along. So it was a really good effort from the whole team.”

As for Schumacher – who made just his second ever Q3 appearance in F1 – the German was happy with his best ever qualifying, but not anticipating making any further progress up the order come Sunday.

READ MORE: Verstappen braves wet conditions to claim Canadian GP pole ahead of sensational Alonso

“It was pretty good,” said Schumacher, who’s still to score in 2022. “Still not maximised what we had… We had to abort one lap because of traffic and then everything got a bit cold which I didn’t want.

“But still very happy with the P6 and a good position to start in tomorrow’s race,” he added. “I don’t envision us going further forwards, just because of the pace most cars have around us, but we will try our best see where we end up.”

After showing flashes of extremely promising pace in 2022, Haas have just 15 points to show for it – with team boss Guenther Steiner targeting a big haul on Sunday for his team, who currently hold P8 in the constructors’ standings.

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“First of all, we need to finish because we didn’t do that in the last races, at least with one car,” said Steiner. “So we need to finish and then we just need to try and keep the positions, or even better, if something happens in front of us. But first of all if we can just hold these positions, I would be more than happy tomorrow at this time.”